Chris Fryar, left, drummer of the Zac Brown Band, says one of his mottoes is, "Don't think. Just play." "Don't take that too literally," Fryar says. "What I mean is to allow your heart to come through the instrument. Allow your emotions to come through when you play. Allow the music to be what it wants to be: a living, breathing thing." (Special)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- When Zac Brown asked Chris Fryar to join his band in 2008, the Birmingham-born drummer had two basic questions.

1. "Can you keep me busy?"

2. "Think you might be able to pay me something?"

Brown said he could handle both of those, so Fryar’s response was immediate.

"I’m in. When does the bus leave?"

All transactions in the music business should be so simple, and so successful.

"I had absolutely no idea that any of the record stuff was being thought of or planned," Fryar says.

Timing and talent were in his favor, however. The Zac Brown Band, formed about six years earlier, achieved a breakthrough with its 2008 album, "The Foundation," and Fryar was there to share in it.

The group cemented its stardom with a couple of follow-ups in 2010, "Pass the Jar" (a live album) and "You Get What You Give" (a studio recording).

Now the Zac Brown Band is a major player in the music industry, with clout, credibility and an extremely loyal fan base. Stadium tours may be in its future, Fryar says, although he and the other guys will be happy to play for about 10,000 listeners on May 28 at the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Pelham.

When he’s not on the road with Zac Brown, Fryar can be found at home in the Gardendale/Mount Olive area with his wife, Holly Travis, and their two teenage daughters. For the record, he’s a graduate of the 1989 class of Gardendale High School, and started playing drums in the marching band at Roy F. Bragg Junior High.

Here’s what Fryar had to say about his music career, past and present, and his role in the Zac Brown Band.

Q: There’s a video of you on the Zac Brown Band website that’s called "Drumming With Sweets." Sweets is your nickname in the band?

A: Sweets is one of several nicknames that I have. I got that name after being a member of the band for two-and-a-half hours. We were on the bus, on our way to Austin, and I had put a bag of bite-sized candy bars in the freezer. One of the other guys said, "Hey, Sweets, give me one of those," and it stuck. I do like sweets. Little Debbie and I have had a love affair for years.

Q:Why do you think the Zac Brown Band is so successful? What about the group has captured the public’s interest?

A: I can’t peer into the minds and hearts of all our fans. But I think it has to do with several things. The band is going to play with the same amount of energy and conviction in front of five people or in front of 50,000 people. I think the songwriting is very, very good. Zac Brown and his songwriting partner, Wyatt Durrette, write things that are beautiful and well stated. They don’t go overboard in the analogies; there’s no guesswork about what the songs are about. The songs are catchy, and a lot of fun for us to play for an audience.

Q:The Zac Brown Band does some unusual things, like feeding fans at massive eat-and-greets. The band also is pretty independent, with its own label, a cooking store, charity work and other projects. How do you feel about that?

A: Zac is a great visionary. He has ideas that we have yet to try out. Sometimes the ideas don’t work, but usually they do. Our experience in the band is that the more insane the ideas seem, the more successful they are. We fearlessly follow him into the fire and it’s become a huge part of what we’re doing.

Q:When you joined the band, did you feel any pressure to follow what the previous drummer had done in the songs?

A: Well, the way we approach it, everyone in the band comes from a different background, and has a different set of musical influences. We allow that to seep into the music and color it. We play to the song. Some songs call for something frenetic and busy, others call for spareness and a lot of space. Outside the basic grooves for each song, the guys gave me carte blanche. Some things I heard on the record and thought, "Wow, I don’t want to change that." For other ideas, it was, "Wow, maybe I can do it a little better."

Chris Fryar, left, says he's played some of his best shows while sick with the flu. "I was deathly ill, worried if I was going to sneeze snot all over the drum set or have a coughing fit," Fryar says. "During those gigs, when I was unable to concentrate on anything other than maintaining life, were the best gigs, hands down. You get into a really weird headspace, and it just flows." (Special)

Q:On your own website, you describe yourself as a self-taught musician. Tell us about that.

A: As a teenager, I knew I wanted to be a musician, so I started buying and playing records, and listening to what those guys were doing. I realized that (the drummers I admired) could do anything they wanted, so I learned to be versatile. For the most part, I learned to play by listening to records. At 16, I’d also hang out at a jazz club in Birmingham called Grundy’s. Some of the drummers who played there, guys like Mark Lanter and Steve Sample Jr., took me under their wing and were very, very open and honest about answering questions. I’m a firm believer in the idea that information is free, if you hunt it down. I’m still a student of music, and definitely of the instrument.

Q:In Birmingham, you played with bands like Gravy, correct?

A: Yes, I was with Gravy in 1995-1996. Then the band changed its name to the Rob Thorworth Trio. Rob and I parted ways, and I was doing a lot of things with Robert Moore & the Wildcats, Glen and Libba, the Undergrounders, wedding receptions and private parties. Then I landed a gig with Oteil & the Peacemakers. It was just one of those fluke things; Oteil had heard me with Glen and Libba, and dug what I was doing.

Q:Do people ever recognize you from those days, like, "Hey, you played at my wedding"?

A: It’s been a long time since someone recognized me from a wedding reception, or from playing at Marty’s. Mostly, people recognize me from playing with Zac on TV. But I’m always in the back, and that’s fine with me.

Q: What are your goals as a drummer? Have your skills grown over the years?

A: To me, you give it 150 percent, all the time. I try to be the best musician I can be. What’s important is that I can sleep at night, knowing I’ve played to the best of my ability. I play like every single gig can be my last one. I took to playing drums at a very young age, the way a duck takes to water. Now there are some really complex things that I’m able to do.

Q: Drummers seem to be very coordinated, with all four limbs moving at the same time. Do you see it that way?

A: I don’t look at the drum set as four different things happening at once. Do you think of the piano as 88 different things going on at once? It’s one instrument, and you figure out how to make it work.

Q:Is it true that you were at home in Alabama, pruning crape myrtle trees, when the band won its latest Grammy in February?

A: Yes. There were other things going on, so I had to be home and I couldn’t attend the Grammys. My wife came out and said, "Hey, honey, you just won a Grammy." I said, "That’s great," and just kept clipping, trying to get it all finished up. It’s an amazing, wonderful thing to win a Grammy. We are deeply honored to have won two Grammys. But I’m just a regular guy, and I have things at home that need doing.

Q:So you don’t have a special room where you keep all the awards and such?

A: I do have a room where I hang that stuff up. There’s stuff on the walls, and in a curio case. The Grammy, CMA, ACM, CMT, they’re all wonderful conversation pieces. But I hardly ever go in that room. I don’t want to stare at it. I don’t want to be the person who believes the hype. I drive a minivan and a pickup truck. Believe me, a minivan is not very rock ‘n’ roll. But I’m blessed. I truly am.